Unit Support material

As you are reading, remember to visit the library's site study guide . You will find the audio book, historical background and critical responses to the text there.

Writing a MEAL Paragraph

In class, we will be working on developing MEAL paragraphs to formulate and demonstrate your analysis of the text. The following material will help you as to how a MEAL paragraph should be structured and what it should include.

Levels of questions:

Once you have formulated your MAIN IDEA, you must come up with EVIDENCE, which is the response to a Level 1 question (fact). Once you have gathered your facts, you can move on to the ANALYSIS, which is the response to a Level 2 question (interpretation). Finally, you should LINK to the real world by exploring a Level 3 question (beyond the text) to identify the significance of the text.




MEAL paragraph presentation
MEAL ¶ example
MEAL ¶ template


Close Reading

Read the passage (p. 9-10 from "The shore..." to "...the heat") once without taking note to get an overall understanding. Then read again, and take notes in bullet points, thinking about the following questions:

• What is happening?
• What themes are beginning to emerge?

- What word contribute to the meaning and tone?- Can you identify any techniques (literary devices) that the author uses?
Commentary on Chapter 8 - Close Reading Activity

Making Inferences

* Assumptions:

• We need to find clues to get some answers.
• We need to add those clues to what we already know or have read.
• There can be more than one correct answer.
• We need to be able to support inferences.

TEXTUAL CLUES (It says…)	MY KNOWLEDGE (I say…)	INFERENCE (So…)

• Ask your selves the following questions:
• What is my inference? (fill in information not directly presented)
• What information did I use to make this inference? (information from the text, background knowledge)
• How good was my thinking? (validity of your thinking)
• Do I need to change my thinking? (possible changes/update in thinking)